The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, has dismissed claims that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries never worked.

Osifo stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.

“I’m an engineer of over 20 years standing, and I understand how mechanics work.

“So I know a system that is working, and I know a system that doesn’t work. I listened to a programme that said the refinery never worked. It’s not correct, the refinery worked,” he said.

The TUC chief explained that the problem was not inactivity but inefficiency.

“There is a difference between a piece of equipment working and a piece of equipment working efficiently. In engineering, these are two different things,” said Osifo.

However, Osifo clarified that the country’s refineries were shut because they were operating at a loss.

“When you feed crude that costs 10 million dollars into the refinery and end up with products worth about 9.5 million dollars, it means you are running at a loss.

“That was exactly what happened, not that the refineries were not working,” he said.